Know Your Como: Midway Garden Club History
By Laura Oyen
While digging through some papers recently I was reminded of a young mother (me) who was looking for a way to meet others in the community and frankly, get a few moments away from two young children at home. That was over 25 years ago, and marked the beginning of my participation in the Midway Parkway Garden Club. The papers I found included a 1997 and 1999 list of the ‘Summer Weeding Schedule’ and a list of 18-20 neighbors who were willing to weed, deadhead flowers, remove trash, stones and plant refuse for the Como Garden Club. For over 30 years the Gardens on Midway Parkway have brought joy to our neighbors and visitors alike.
History of Midway Parkway Gardens
While trying to figure out how the club originally started it was amazing to me to begin to learn how the work of neighbors and their willingness to participate on community task forces contributed to the quality of the neighborhood we call home. I learned that in the early 1990’s, the Midway Parkway beds consisted of the two gardens at Hamline, a bed at Pascal across from Holy Childhood Church, a perennial bed at Arona, two beds near Snelling, a little circle around the signpost at Snelling and a small petunia bed by the stone pillar at Hamline and Como. From the beginning of June to the middle of September volunteers from the neighborhood would take turns weeding the gardens and once a month a “Group Weeding” was scheduled. Volunteers would gather and start working at Midway and Hamline and weed our way up the parkway to Snelling. The garden beds were smaller and more formal than what you see today. I recall rectangular beds with tall red Canna Lilies placed in the center of the beds with bright annuals circling the edges of the gardens.
Almost all the gardeners lived within a block or two of Midway Parkway. Molly O’Rouke and Sue Smith-Cunnien were some of the earliest garden club organizers. Sue was active with the District Council and received a call from then-D10 Organizer Julie Hoff about starting a Garden Club. At first I thought the idea to organize a Garden club may have evolved out of the Midway Parkway – West Como Small Area Plan (initiated in 1992 – adopted in 1997).
According to the 1997 plan:
“Midway Parkway is a signature amenity for the Midway Parkway-West Como neighborhood. It gives the neighborhood identity as a special place, provides it with a focal point and central public place, and enhances surrounding property values.”
Judy Johnson, another original garden club member and current devoted organizer of the Midway Parkway Garden club, believes that the garden club preceded the 1997 small area plan. Over the years there have been several documents that have discussed ways to beautify Midway Parkway. According to the 1997 Midway Parkway-West Como Small Area Plan,
“The central roadway was improved in 1928 and 1929, with grading, paving, seeding and tree planting taking place at that time. Beyond these improvements, only routine maintenance has occurred, with the exceptions of tree planting in 1986 and 1987 after loss of most of the elms that once lined the parkway and the realignment of the Snelling Avenue intersection in 1986 and 1987. The lantern style lighting and other decorative parkway treatments envisioned for Midway Parkway have never been completed.”
There was a gap in the information I could find in the area plans but by digging through old District 10 Board meeting minutes I was able to find this amazing note regarding the first Midway Parkway gardens. At the February 13, 1990 Board Meeting the Como Park Garden Club had a section:
“Anna Sonmore, a resident, is considering forming a Garden Club in the area. They would establish and maintain plantings along Midway Parkway. Anna is a qualified gardener and has informally discussed her plan with Les Day from the Conservatory. The city would supply standards and plants. She would like our Board to support her and help in the efforts to advertise and see if there is enough interest in the neighborhood. The Board overwhelmingly supported the idea and a motion was made and seconded to support the idea and help advertise for members.” This was Passed by voice vote and Anna was going to write an article for the newsletter.
The gardens must have gotten going in the summer of 1990 because by January 1992 the Garden Club received the Neighborhood Forum Award and was receiving perennials donated by the Lebens Nursery. In the early 1990’s it was common to see “Meetings” for the Garden Club held at Hamline and Midway Parkway or at Lyngblomsten. The 1994 list of District 10 Como Community accomplishments noted that “District Council provided administrative support to the Como Park garden club to work with maintaining Midway parkway gardens, plot at Como and Hamline and site at North Dale.” They were even considering organizing a garden tour!
By 1997 the Midway Parkway neighborhood gardeners were well established. In my files I found weeding schedules for 1997-1999 along with lists of members and even a workshop sponsored by the “Como Park Garden Club”. The workshop was “A Native Landscaping for our Urban Yards” taught by Shelley Shreffler, the Natural Resources Program Manager from the St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium.
Local neighbor Mick Johnson, owner of Johnson Creek Landscaping created a Perennial garden plan for the Arona street garden at Midway Parkway. These gardens could be seen in the 1997 Small Area Plan which, for Midway Parkway, had built its plan off of the “Midway Parkway Redevelopment Plan” that was developed in the 1980’s. Money for the street and lighting improvements for Midway Parkway were sought in the 1989 and 1991 Capitol Improvement Budget (CIB). The citywide sewer separation project needed to be completed before any road work could be started on the parkway. In 2005, the new and improved Parkway was completed which also included water access for the gardens at Hamline and Arona.
Over the years proximity to the Hamline/Midway gardens seemed to guarantee stewardship of the gardens. If you lived in the Frankson Mansion, you worked on the gardens. Doreen Drake, Mary Nuebel, and Terri Tacheny, all former residents of the lion house, spent time beautifying the parkway gardens. Sharon Shinomiya, local author of Como Park Area history, who lived a couple of blocks away also worked the gardens for many years.
We received many of the annual bedding plants from the State Fair Greenhouses in the early years according to Judy Johnson. In the 1990’s there were 7 gardens and over 20 gardeners maintaining the plots. Once the State Fair stopped providing bedding plants for the Snelling Avenue beds those beds were relegated back to lawn. For the past several years we have been getting plants from the City of St. Paul through their Blooming Saint Paul program. In 2014 the Midway Parkway Gardeners received the Silver Bloom Award from Blooming Saint Paul with a wonderful presentation down at the St. Paul Union Depot.
As lives changed, gardeners moved on, so did the garden bed at Pascal in front of Holy Childhood and the site at Como and Hamline. Some years we celebrated the end of the gardening season with a nice dinner where white gloves were exchanged for our typical garden gloves. We gardened through Covid and had some excitement in 2020 when a driver crashed into the north garden at Hamline and took out the street light and a flowering tree. Within a week, with the help of Marcus Phelps-Munson, a new Pagoda Dogwood (grown from seedlings by Val Cunningham) was planted to take its place.
Over the past years, as our numbers have decreased, it has been Judy Johnson, Molly O’Rourke, Toni Merth, Ruth MacDonald and myself heading over to the Como Central Service Facility at Hamline and Jessamine to pick up our annual flowers from the City. If we are lucky a donut and cup of coffee are enjoyed there as well! We’ve shared life events and stories over planting and weeding. We’ve shoveled and mulched and weeded again. Neighbors have come and gone, but we have all enjoyed our time beautifying the Midway Parkway of the Como Neighborhood of St. Paul.
We look forward to adding a new group of gardeners to continue this historic community effort of beautifying Midway Parkway. If you have any stories about the Midway Parkway Gardens or would like to volunteer, please send an email to history@district10comopark.org.
Do you know some interesting history about your home, your neighbor or about the Como neighborhood? Anyone is welcome to do an interview, share historic photos or do a write up for the Know Your Como segment of our newsletter! For more information on how to submit go to our Know Your Como page.